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Jessica Murphy

Gamification: Green Tech Makes Energy Use a Game-and We All Win. - 1 views

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    McLuhan and Bogart would probably enjoy this article because it involves procedural rhetoric. It examines how "gamification strategies"--using games to change behavior in real life--can promote energy efficiency. Companies like SimpleEnergy are creating apps that let users track their energy usage, find ways to improve, and compete with friends and neighbors for spots on a leaderboard. Gamification succeeds because apparently social pressure can motivate people even more than monetary incentives, and these initiatives combine both types of incentives: An energy usage competition at the University of Hawaii led to some dorms cutting energy usage by up to 20 percent. This specific method also allows users to save money and conserve energy without "radical infrastructure changes" or the corruption and waste that often results from government subsidies to politically-connected "green" companies like Solyndra and possibly Sapphire Energy. In addition, the apps provide large-scale energy usage data that researchers can use to measure both change over time and the impact of energy usage on other variables.
Benjamin Myers

Voosh Themes - Premium Wordpress Themes - 0 views

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    ... and some more themes. Places you could pay to get the theme, but also you could look at it for ideas and the design it yourself.
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    ... and my text became a hyperlink.
Jessica Murphy

Google Offers $1 Million in Exploit Rewards for Chrome Hacks - 0 views

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    Google is offering a Chromebook and cash prizes totaling $1 million for anyone who can hack its Chrome browser at the CanSecWest security conference next week: $40,000 for "partial Chrome exploit" and $60,000 for "full Chrome exploit." This event illustrates a concept from this week's readings: community collaboration can increase a service's effectiveness and bolster a company's success. The Google Chrome Security Team even stated that the contest provides "a big learning opportunity" and ultimately enables them to better protect users by revealing bugs and providing information about hacking techniques.
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    It is like at the start of Sneakers when they are paid to break into banks and show the various security issues. Also, it would be pretty sweet to log $40,000-$60,000 in that short a period of time. I suspect there would also be a job offer that came along with it.
Benjamin Myers

HowStuffWorks "Is your workplace tracking your computer activities?" - 0 views

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    This is a pretty straightforward, simplistic article (it is How Stuff Works ... I mean, come on) that deals with tracking computer use in the workplace. While not directly related to the Kirschenbaum, I thought it connected enough to post. It seemed like a potential point to launch into discussions on the permanence of data, and it reminded me of a year or two ago when Michelle sent out an e-mail asking people to stop using the resource room computers to look at porn. 
Benjamin Myers

Why wait? Six ways that Congress could fix copyright, now - 0 views

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    Going back to an older discussion, I thought some might be interested in this article. It puts forward ideas for how copyright issues could be addressed. The website in full might also be interesting to some.
Benjamin Myers

The Copy Editor - 0 views

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    A Tumblr page that has updates with information on design, editing, typography, etc.
Benjamin Myers

Instagram - 1 views

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    A humorous breakdown of the uses of social media.
Benjamin Myers

WordPress Themes Free & Premium Grid Based | Dessign - 0 views

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    Some website design ideas ...
Jessica Murphy

How Red Hat Killed its Core Product-and Became a Billion-Dollar Business - 0 views

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    This article examines how Red Hat transitioned from free open source software to a system they sell through a subscription with updates, patches, and bug fixes. Red Hat still provides free code, though; a community project called Fedora provides "a testing ground for the enterprise features delivered to Red Hat's paying customers," allowing both the company and the users to benefit from collaboration. This article shows the balance of sustainability between free and paid access. It also echoes Kenneth Goldman's claims in Uncreative Writing because the CEO says, "If you believe in the concept of modular innovation where a lot of different people add to works that came before them, patents clearly slow that down."
Jessica Murphy

Enhanced Brain-Computer Interface Promises Unparalleled Autonomy for Disabled - 0 views

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    Moving closer to the Matrix? A Spanish research center called Barcelona Digital is coordinating a three-year initiative called the BrainAble project to develop technologies that will improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. By developing advanced brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, ambient intelligence (AmI), and virtual reality (VR), researchers enable users to operate a robot, interact in virtual environments, communicate more easily, and remotely control lighting, heating and other devices in their homes. Plus, this technology could also benefit the eldery and people in rehabilitation, as well as allow the remote monitoring of people with neurological disorders.
Rachel Henderson

E-texts: Dragging books into the 21st century | Entrepreneur | Financial Post - 0 views

  • Take, for example, an Inkling produced biology text that generates 3D models of molecules and contains high-definition videos, or the undergraduate music appreciation text that weaves audio samples from live performances with descriptive text.
  • “There’s always going to be a need for books. When I have kids I’ll be reading them books. There’s nothing inherently bad about a book,” says the native Cape Bretoner.
  • “But for the purposes of helping somebody learn a complex concept or personalizing the learning experience – a book is a terrible device. It is, by definition, one-size-fits-all. It can’t be updated, it can’t be interactive, and it’s not terribly engaging.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The titles are downloaded through Inkling’s website, and cost about 40% less than their print counterparts
  • “I am, to this day, blown away that when you walk into most classrooms – including in Canada – technology is not a core component of how people learn,” he says.
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    another plug for e-texts
Rachel Henderson

E-textbooks beyond Apple's iBooks - The Washington Post - 0 views

  • Principles of Biology, a constantly updating science textbook
  • The book, which will constantly be updated with the latest scientific information, will cost $49 for students and will be available through a Web browser, rather than requiring a certain device.
  • “They don’t have to carry anything around, no apps, no devices, no matter where they are they have access,” he said
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  • For now, the books will only be in English
  • Savkar said he knows that e-textbooks will eventually be the primary texts for classrooms and believes that there’s a five- to 10-year transition before these texts are widely adopted.
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    While I'm not a fan of reading online/on a computer screen-yet-I am interested in this transition from paper to digital texts (textbooks). There seems to be several advantages, such as constantly updating and affordable ($49 for a science textbook?!).
Martina Helfferich

The Library of Congress, in Partnership with Zepheira, Launches Viewshare.org - Press R... - 0 views

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    Short, interesting article on the progress "Project Recollection" has made since 2008, now titled "Project Viewshare"
Martina Helfferich

Sustainability Factors - 0 views

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    Sustainability factors listed in preparation for the Library of Congress Collections.
Rachel Henderson

How to delete your Google Browsing History before new policy - 0 views

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    This was interesting trying to turn off (or "pause") my web history! This kind of stuff creeps me out-how much "web people" know about us and our personal lives.
Martina Helfferich

Using Spam Blockers To Preserve Literature - CBS News - 0 views

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    Interesting article about book preservation using captcha technology. 
Rachel Henderson

The Daily Tar Heel :: Students living in a paperless world - 0 views

  • 4 comments
  • paper products make up the largest share of solid waste in the United States. This country is also the largest paper consumer in the world, with one person going through an average of 663 pounds each year.
  • the past several years have seen such improvements in electronic readers and other eco-friendly technologies that a paperless world is now possible
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  • some publications have shifted toward online-only content
  • It’s now possible to purchase and read many required textbooks online.
  • the course pack, should simply be banned
  • In cases in which copyright issues arise, course packs should be made available for purchase as e-books.
  • reduce the amount of money allocated to students for printing
  • encourage professors to require that homework be submitted online
  • The money formerly used for paper could be transferred to something more environmentally friendly, like purchasing eReaders that can be checked out in the library.
  • the main objection to eReaders – that the energy required to make and use one exceeds the carbon impact of making a book – is largely invalid: The carbon emitted in the life cycle of an Amazon Kindle is fully offset after one year of us
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    Argument (with some decent solutions/suggestions) for making the transition from paper to electronic publications.
Rachel Henderson

An Insider Shares Mark Zuckerberg's 6 Secrets for Success - DailyFinance - 0 views

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    Fast track to being a billionaire. (And a Facebook timeline.)
anonymous

Upvote This: Reddit Users Are Writing a Law to Protect the Internet - 0 views

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    This article talks about an alternative to SOPA and PIPA written by Reddit users. There's a link to the Reddit community and Google document they're working on. Although it's difficult for me to see how this document could impact/influence any actual legislation, redditors have had some success making waves in the past. After GoDaddy announced its support for SOPA, Reddit users staged a boycott. GoDaddy ultimately changed its position.
anonymous

Facebook and others aim to make the mobile Web a competitive app platform - 0 views

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    A number of companies are working together to create mobile web standards. Standardization is becoming an important issue as many of us (myself included) increasingly access the web through our smart phones.
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